West Tivian, Coal Ash District.
In the afternoon, on a sparsely populated street, a yellow horse gallops forward at full speed, its hooves kicking up clouds of dust. Pedestrians ahead quickly step aside to avoid the oncoming rider.
On the galloping horse sits a figure clad in a black cloak, gripping the reins tightly and urging the horse to go faster. As the horse races down the street, the rider keeps glancing back. Behind them, a rolling cloud of dust rapidly engulfs the entire street.
The pedestrians, who had just dodged the speeding horse, barely have time to curse the reckless rider before the swirling dust swallows them. In the gusting sandstorm, everyone on the street covers their faces and seeks shelter. Street vendors shout as they try to protect their stalls from being blown away by the sudden wind. For a moment, no one can see clearly.
What no one notices is that above the dust cloud, a figure is flying swiftly down the street, chasing the fleeing rider.
Using the wind to propel himself, Edmond quickly catches up to the fleeing target. His eyes lock onto the rider ahead, and with a wave of his cane, he summons a powerful gust of wind. The gust not only kicks up more dust but also blows the rider’s horse off its feet. The horse neighs in panic as it crashes to the ground, and the rider is thrown off.
The cloaked figure cries out as he hits the ground but quickly struggles to his feet, ready to continue his escape. However, Edmond swoops down from the sky and strikes the figure hard with his cane. The figure cries out in pain and collapses again, his hood falling back to reveal the face of an ordinary young man.
"Don’t move. Kneel down, turn your face away, and raise your hands. Don’t look at me. If you value your head, stay still."
Edmond points his cane at the young man, who, after a moment of panic, complies without resistance, turning to kneel on the ground with his hands raised. Seeing this, Edmond can’t help but smile slightly.
…Meanwhile, while Edmond is busy chasing other targets, Adèle finally manages to escape. After shaking off Edmond’s pursuit, she quickly disappears into the maze of narrow alleys in the Coal Ash District. After confirming that Edmond isn’t following her, she lets out a sigh of relief at the end of a deserted alley.
But before long, a sudden voice makes her tense up again.
"That was close, Miss Adèle. We almost had to face the Serenity Bureau head-on."
Adèle turns toward the voice and sees a familiar figure stepping out from around a corner—a man in a trench coat and a low-brimmed hat. It’s Detective Ed.
"Whew... Yeah... That mad dog almost caught me. Thanks to you, Detective... or should I say, Director."
Seeing Ed, Adèle relaxes a bit. Still wearing her sunglasses, she knows that the group of seemingly mind-controlled civilians at the cargo storage yard earlier were clearly Ed’s flesh puppets. Back at the theater, she had seen Ed’s talking flesh puppets and witnessed his ability to manipulate them into lifelike performances. So when those "hostages" appeared, she immediately realized that Ed was using his abilities to help her escape.
"Call it whatever you like... Thankfully, that Hunter captain still cares about civilian lives, so this trick worked on him. If he were a deranged cultist, things would have been much harder."
Ed walks over to Adèle as he speaks. At Charcoal Junction, Edmond had suddenly attacked Adèle, whom he believed to be the mastermind, in order to protect the ordinary civilians. This made it clear to Dorothy that Edmond cared about the lives of ordinary people.
If Edmond hadn’t cared at all about the civilians affected by the abilities at Charcoal Junction, he could have stayed hidden, secretly tracking Adèle and coordinating with his team to investigate or launch an ambush. Instead, he acted immediately, fearing that the civilians might be in danger if he didn’t intervene.
Knowing that Edmond cared about civilian lives and firmly believed that a Beyonder was manipulating their minds, Dorothy quickly devised a plan to use marionettes to divert Edmond’s attention. Due to the overall absence of the Revelation path in the mysticism world, only Dorothy’s marionettes could speak and move like real people. This made her act impossible for Edmond to disbelieve.
After using an ordinary marionette to lure Edmond away, Dorothy continued to monitor the city from above using a raven marionette, tracking Adèle’s escape and eventually reuniting her with Ed.
"Anyway, thanks to you, we managed to shake off that mad dog... But why did he suddenly target me in the first place? And what was going on at the intersection earlier..."
Frowning, Adèle murmurs to herself. After this ordeal, she realizes that the situation is more complicated than she thought. The sudden loss of control among the civilians at Charcoal Junction and the timing of the Hunters targeting her were too coincidental. This makes Adèle uneasy, and a series of unsettling thoughts begin to form in her mind.
Seeing Adèle’s troubled expression, Ed speaks up seriously.
"Although you might not want to hear this, I have to say that, based on the current situation, the series of events in the Coal Ash District are likely a trap set for you, Miss Adèle. The Wolf Blood Society may have taken control of your teacher and used her abilities to lure the Serenity Bureau here, forcing you to be hunted by them to achieve their goals."
Ed says this, and Adèle nods silently before responding in a low voice.
"Yeah... You’re right. Based on what’s happened, it does seem like we’ve walked into a trap..." Adèle says grimly, and Ed continues.
"Exactly. The events in the Coal Ash District are a trap set for you, Miss Adèle. Now that we’ve narrowly escaped their first attempt, the safest course of action would be to retreat immediately."
Hearing Ed’s words, Adèle is momentarily stunned, then smiles at him.
"If you really wanted to run away, Detective... you would have dragged me along by now. You wouldn’t be standing here telling me all this... So, do you have another plan, Mr. Ed?"
Adèle says to Ed, who shrugs and replies.
"Hah... Miss Adèle, you’re as sharp as ever. You’re right. In my opinion, it’s not yet time to run. The people who set this trap in this area are also taking a risk of exposure. Now that their first attempt has failed, it gives us an opportunity. I never waste opportunities. Their turn is over, and now it’s our turn."
Adjusting his collar, Ed speaks with calm confidence. Looking at him, Adèle pauses for a moment, then smiles and replies.
"You’re always so reassuring. Your confidence is your most attractive quality, Detective. I’m glad I hired you."
"Thank you for the compliment, but let’s save that for after we deal with the current situation. Right now, our top priority is to find the person hiding in the shadows who set us up."
Ed says this, and Adèle’s expression turns serious again. She brushes the dust off her clothes and speaks to Ed.
"From the look on your face, it seems you already have some leads."
"Sort of. But to make any real progress, we need more information. Miss Adèle, I recall you once said that the Desire Dancer’s ability requires the user to perceive the target. Otherwise, it can only be released indiscriminately. So, what exactly does this perception entail? Does it require sight?"
Ed asks Adèle, who quickly responds.
"For a Desire Dancer, sight is the best form of perception. Other forms of perception, such as smell or hearing, can only roughly determine a direction—the direction of a scent or a sound. They can’t pinpoint the exact location immediately. Sight is the best way to confirm a target’s position."
Adèle explains, and Ed frowns slightly.
"So, at least at Charcoal Junction, we... the Serenity Bureau... and the ordinary pedestrians were all likely within the line of sight of the person behind this? Even... he might have been on the scene?"
"It’s certain that we were all within his line of sight, but he might not have been physically present. First, it wouldn’t be safe. Second, if he was truly controlling my teacher to use her abilities, then he must have been near her. So, at Charcoal Junction, it was more likely a flesh puppet providing vision. The puppet at the intersection was probably equipped with a Shadow-path item to block my spiritual perception."
Adèle says this, having had many encounters with the Wolf Blood Society, she is familiar with their methods.
Hearing Adèle’s words, Ed nods.
"Right... That does seem more likely. When that Hunter captain summoned the sandstorm earlier, the affected civilians immediately returned to normal. This was probably because the flesh puppet he had stationed at the intersection lost its line of sight, causing it to lose its target."
Dorothy thinks to herself. At the time, she hadn’t noticed anyone acting like a flesh puppet at Charcoal Junction, so the puppet was likely hidden in a building, observing from above.
"But there’s still one question. Even if the puppet was monitoring Charcoal Junction, how did it know we were a problem? The Hunters were all in plain clothes. How did it identify them?"
At this point, Adèle strokes her chin and murmurs in confusion. At the time, the mastermind had accurately transferred Edmond’s urgent desire to find the mind-controller onto Adèle. This meant that he knew the identities of the plainclothes Hunters and Adèle. But how did he know this?
Dorothy’s Concealment Ring contains intact Shadow spirituality, which means no one was using Lantern to forcibly locate Beyonders. The group of Hunters were likely all Shadow-path Beyonders, making it even harder to detect them using Beyonder abilities.
So... how did the mastermind confirm Adèle and Edmond’s identities? It’s unlikely that both the Crimson Heart and the Serenity Bureau have moles. Adèle’s mission this time was highly confidential, known only to Ed... or Dorothy.
Hearing Adèle’s question, Dorothy falls into deep thought. The Ed marionette she controls also enters a state of contemplation. But after a while, Dorothy has Ed slowly speak, uttering a single word.
"The police station..."
"What?"
"The Coal Ash District police station. When we came here to investigate, the first thing we thought of was going to the police station to get the crime records for the past few days. We thought this way, and the Hunters must have thought the same. And the mastermind would have thought of it too."
With his hands behind his back, Ed murmurs. At this point, Adèle immediately understands what Ed means and says in realization.
"So, Detective, you’re saying... the mastermind anticipated that we and the Serenity Bureau would go to the police station to check the crime records, so he planted a spy there. This spy would report to the mastermind as soon as anyone checked the recent crime records. Through this spy, the mastermind confirmed our identities and those of the Hunters?"
"Exactly... And once all the crime records are marked on a map, they point to only one location: Charcoal Junction. So, the mastermind knew that we and the Hunters would inevitably meet at Charcoal Junction. I suspect he originally planned for us to ’coincidentally’ meet in that burned-down building... But I noticed the Hunters arriving and held back. Seeing that we wouldn’t run into each other, the mastermind manipulated the civilians to stage that earlier scene... What a meticulously prepared plan..."
Ed says with a sigh, and Adèle smiles slightly.
"But now they’ve slipped up. Since we know there’s a spy in the Coal Ash District police station, we can start our investigation there."
Adèle says, and Dorothy, through Ed, nods in agreement.
…
The storm has just subsided, and the dust clouds slowly settle over the Coal Ash District. Pedestrians everywhere are discussing the strange winds that just swept through.
Near the Coal Ash District police station, inside a teahouse, Adèle and Ed sit facing each other, looking out the window at the police station building in the distance.
"I once sent a small flesh puppet to investigate... but didn’t find anyone who seemed like a flesh puppet. Small flesh puppets can’t wear Shadow-path items to block your spiritual perception, so the mastermind’s spy in the police station must be a living person—likely one of the police officers."
Sipping a cup of tea, Ed gazes at the police station and continues.
"I can send small flesh puppets to monitor the station, but I can’t watch everyone at once... And it’s hard to predict when the spy will contact his boss. So, this surveillance might take a while. We might need to be patient..."
Ed murmurs as he looks into the distance. Hearing his words, Adèle speaks with a hint of regret.
"It’s a shame I can’t go investigate in person. If we were dealing with living people, my abilities might be more useful. But without seeing them... there’s not much I can do."
Hearing Adèle’s words, Dorothy pauses, then an idea suddenly comes to her.
“Maybe... we can take this opportunity to…”
Dorothy thinks, then has Ed, sitting in the distant teahouse, speak to Adèle.
"You want to get a view inside the police station? That can be arranged... Now, I’ll give you an Honorific Name. All you need to do is pray to this name."